It's probably a combination of things that exist today, that did not exist when Vine was around, which did have influencers and still failed. Tiktok started as

It's probably a combination of things that exist today, that did not exist when Vine was around, which did have influencers and still failed. Tiktok started as a Chinese only service. China has restricted access to the global internet, so having their own video social media platform was a big deal. It built up a huge audience. When it went global, it had a built-in audience of viewers and creators. Yeah, they may be Chinese, but an American or British or what-have-you outside of China person posting a video on there and watching viewer counts go brrrrr makes you want to do it some more. It attracts other users and creators. So a combination of timing, exclusivity to a region with restricted global internet, and simplicity in the design makes it attractive. An excellent trojan horse to collect data on a massive number of people around the world.